A2Z week 1 : Constrained Writings
As English as second language speaker, I was so fascinated by the class last week not only by the class lesson and discussions itself but also by the structures of poem in english language that is very different than my mother language and yet somehow very similar ( — mainly because thai vowel has different structure and could’t stand as a letter alone by itself. Therefore, not all constrained writing rules in the class can apply to Thai language )
From all techniques in the class, I prefer cut-up technique the most. Cut-up allows me to question myself about the meanings of the writing and offers random but straightforward ways to find new perspectives from the same writing without adding any extra words to the piece which reminded me a lot of a paper folding game I used to play when I was a kid ( — yes, I’m a 90s kid growing up with rock, paper and scissor games when there was still no internet ).
This folding style might be known by westerner as a fortune telling paper. But for me, this kind of folding paper has been used for so many different ways to create games and stories and I even used to play with it as a poem machine before by using some old newspapers with my friends.
For this assignment, I’m using a copy of my asylum paper for this folding-cut technique. Since the contradiction of this letter; which is definitely one the most important and paper in my life, from its form of writing that is full of logics and rules but still tied with quite a bit of luck and randomness makes me want to take a look of its meaning again in a different approach.
First I cut a copy paper into a square, then scoring the paper grid following the instruction so it’ll be easier to fold.
And here are some of the constrained writings that I like from this letter :
The immigration
in the united
retain
You are authorized
status, your derivative
Family member long as they retain
Derivative asylum store not you have
employment, authorization
to employers, you